Stephen Hawking Thinks Black Holes Aren't So Bad, Take Us To Parallel Universes

Stephen Hawking gave a presentation at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, Tuesday, and dropped some new research and theories that may change the way we think about black holes, and their place in the Universe.

I'm just gonna be square with you guys: this is more than a bit above my level of comprehension. I'm not well versed in quantum mechanics, I have no idea what String Theory is, and I can only solve the most basic physics problems. But black holes are damn cool, so we should all watch the video of the presentation even though it contains references to terms like the information loss paradox and Hawking radiation. Basically, he challenges conventional black hole wisdom, claiming they might not be as dark and deadly as we previously thought.

YouTube/KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Thankfully, this helpful IFLScience breakdown of the presentation tells the less theoretical physics-informed among us that what Hawking was getting at.

"They [black holes] are not the eternal prisons they were once thought," IFL reports Hawking said. "Things can get out of a black hole both on the outside and possibly come out in another universe."

Another universe. There it is, from Stephen Hawking himself. You CAN get to a parallel universe through a black hole, according to the world's preeminent expert on things we'll never understand--someone call Matthew McConaughey.